Details - An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet : containing a narrative of a journey through Bootan, and part of Tibet

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An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet

Title

An account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet : containing a narrative of a journey through Bootan, and part of Tibet

By

Turner, Samuel, 1759-1802
Davis, Samuel, 1760-1819
Saunders, Robert, active 1782-1790,
W. Bulmer and Co.,
G. & W. Nicol,

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

London, Printed by W. Bulmer and Co, 1800

Notes

Some of the plates signed: Lieut. S Davis del, James Basire sc. One aquatint by De la Motte after Stubbs

English Short Title Catalog, | T136507

In 1783, at the opportunity presented by a new Panchen (or Teshoo) Lama, Bengal governor-general Warren Hastings sent a deputation to Tibet and Bhutan in the hope of promoting British-Indian trade across the Himalayas. Samuel Turner (1759-1802), an army officer in the East India Company, was appointed leader of the mission. His journal, offering first-hand descriptions of these countries, was originally published in 1800 and remained the only such English-language work for more than half a century. Assisted by the botanist and surgeon Robert Saunders and the surveyor and illustrator Samuel Davis, Turner interweaves geographical and scientific observations with descriptions of social and religious customs; the vivid account of his reception by the infant Panchen Lama is of particular note. The introduction sketches the history of Bengal-Bhutan relations and George Bogle's prior mission, while later sections deal with Tibet and the influence of China. This was and remains an invaluable account of eighteenth-century diplomacy